The importance of understanding people: Gaia, Senior UX Designer in Amsterdam

About Gaia

Hi! I'm Gaia, I do UX and other unicorn stuff. Originally Italian, I moved abroad in 2011 and since then I moved 17 times and lived across 3 continents in 12 cities, including Beijing, Dubai, Budapest, London, and Hamburg.

My career actually started as creative and strategist for advertising. Since I didn’t find it brought much value to the end-customers, I moved to service design and UX. My first service design project ever was as a co-designer/mentor for a prison rehabilitation project in London, which gave me a passion for sustainability and design as a tool to improve and give back to the community.

Since when I was a child, I’ve believed knowledge is freedom. Hence, my main passion is understanding people, deeply and completely, exploring every facade there is and every possible experience (positive and negative), and repurposing those learnings for others and for their self-acceptance and self-improvement. It might be a bit of a heavy concept 🙂 but it truly helped me in interacting with clients from different cultures and in designing for users I wouldn't necessarily be able to relate to.

Besides this, I also enjoy photography, traveling, cooking and exploring new things through various sources (books, documentaries, etc.).

Tell us about your job. What do you do at Backbase?

My role is Senior UX designer in our Product Implementation team. So far, my main responsibilities have been dealing with clients during Intakes, Inceptions, workshops and a bit of design work. I'm definitely proud of my extended team - working with such talents is a privilege day after day and I wouldn't be able to do my job without them. The excitement comes from each day being different, there are always new challenges and new learnings.

What brought you to Backbase?

Andreas, a Principal UX Designer in Amsterdam Product Implementation team, was the reason why I joined. I read so many negative online reviews about Backbase that I was very skeptical. But after our first interview, I knew I wanted to learn from him - and I was right, he's a wonderful person and an amazing talent 🙂

Moreover, the design culture at Backbase has shifted massively. You can feel it’s THE momentum for the design team and it’s exciting.

What do your parents think you do?

My mom thinks I travel too much and don't eat enough 😂#ItalianMom